I make art to figure out what I'm thinking, not to tell people what I think. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Art points to things. It's a way of giving people not the standard way of looking at the world. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I said to myself, "If the government thinks I'm an artist, I must be one." — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My job is not to produce answers. My job is to produce good questions. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Is there such a thing as black art? Or are there just artists who are black? — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Rather than say art is art and life is life, I like to say that they're joined and inextricable. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In government they learned their lesson. They don't trust artists anymore. Now the money has to go through arts organizations. But, yeah,… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In '89, I got a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. That's when I started to get into group shows.… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My mother really didn't come from artists. Her famous quote to me was, "The only artists I've ever heard of are dead."… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I switched up so that I could work 12-hour shifts at the firm on the weekends so I could have days free… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My mother used to say that when I told her that I wanted to be an artist, her famous line was, 'The… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I graduated from Wesleyan University with a b.a. in art. I was really headed toward an architecture degree, but when I did… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I think there's an interest right now in the performance aspect of artworks, instead of just hanging things on walls. We're in… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In 2011, 'Yourself in the World,' a book of my writings and interviews, was published in conjunction with a retrospective of my… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in art. I was really headed toward an architecture degree, but when I did… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Artists such as Lorna Simpson, Zoe Leonard, Byron Kim and Stephen Andrews and I are around the same age, and I know… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Throughout African-American literature, the writer has, in a sense, been burdened by the necessity of pleading the case for the whole race. For example,… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Race is not something inherent to one's being: One does feel more or less colored, depending on the situation. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I think there's an interest right now in the performance aspect of artworks, instead of just hanging things on walls. We're in a moment… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
A key text for me is James Baldwin's essays. And, in particular, his essay Stranger in the Village. It's a text that I've used… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
It's a great idea: to feel the rhythm of something by seeing how it flows on a page. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In writing, something is always left out: it can't be articulated in the space of an essay. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Willem de Kooning paintings are a language to be learned. When they were first shown, they were ridiculed as being just drips and splatters… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My mother really didn't come from artists. Her famous quote to me was, "The only artists I've ever heard of are dead." The pottery… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
